Florida Is Best in Nation

in Foster Child Adoptions

LSF Is Adoptions Partner in Lee, Charlotte Counties

17 September 2009

TALLAHASSEE, FLA. – Florida is receiving nearly $10 million in bonus funds from the federal government, far outpacing any other state, for its increase in adoptions of children from foster care, the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) announced today.

Twenty-eight cents of every dollar being granted in federal adoption incentives is headed to Florida, which was awarded more than $9.75 million. The next highest adoption incentive award went to Texas, which received
nearly $5 million. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded a total of $35 million in adoption incentive bonuses to 38 states and Puerto Rico.

“Florida has embraced a never-give-up attitude about finding families to adopt children in foster care. Our progress on adoptions is a great opportunity to thank all the adoptive parents who made a commitment to a foster child and the adoption counselors who supported their efforts,” Secretary George Sheldon of the Florida Department of Children and Families said on Thursday. “Under Governor Crist’s leadership, more families are making the choice to open up their hearts and adopt a foster child. Even in tough economic times, people want to adopt the children most in need of safe, loving homes.”

For two years in a row, a record number of Florida’s children have been adopted from foster care, with 3,777 children adopted in state fiscal year 2008-09 and 3,674 children adopted in 2007-08. 

The Explore Adoption public awareness campaign, led by Crist, Lt. Governor Jeff Kottkamp and the Governor’s Chief Child Advocate Jim Kallinger, has spotlighted the importance of finding “forever families” for foster children. Floridians can access profiles and photos of children available for adoption at www.adoptflorida.org.  The day-to-day work of connecting foster children with adoptive parents and getting the adoptions  through the courts was performed by adoption counselors through community-based care partners and judges throughout the state.

A “Longest Waiting Teens” project, initiated in 2009, helped spur the adoption of teenagers from foster care, and 25 of 103 foster youth identified, which includes siblings, have been adopted. Sixteen-year-old Dalton was on the “Longest Waiting Teens” list and in foster care for six years before being adopted July 1 by Theresa and Stuart Rosenberg of Ocoee.

“We’re supposed to be together. It’s probably the greatest thing I’ve ever done,” said Theresa Rosenberg, who already had adopted another teen from foster care and has two biological children. “They’re just as needy and loving as other kids. They don’t have any concept of what a family is.  They don’t get it at first. Later when they get, they can’t get enough of it.”

Federal adoption incentives were enhanced under the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008, which rewards states with more money for adoptions of older children in foster care or those with special needs.

To read about the Adoptions program at Lutheran Services Florida, click here.

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